Spring was cool and unsettled through until early December, but we were spared damage from frosts that bit at the region in October. Flowering was less than ideal with prolonged wet and cool periods affecting most varieties. We were lucky a second time, experiencing no damage from the Boxing Day hail storm that brought isolated catastrophic damage to crops around the region. The flowering conditions also resulted in small berries, light bunches and ultimately reduced yields. January brought warmer weather and drying winds throughout February. These moderate conditions resulting in restrained sugars and the retention of bright, clean acidity. A suitably challenging season which has again delivered wonderful wines. Expect vibrancy, balance and concentration from our 2021 wines! 

Beautifully ripe Pinot Gris was hand harvested from the Moutere over the last week of March. Each pick, whole-bunch pressed yielding delicate juice with excellent acid retention and light phenolics. A small parcel from our home block on the plains was machine harvested in the cool of early morning. The juice enjoyed a short soak on skins prior to pressing for more intense phenolic extraction and development of flavour precursors. Once separated, the juices were cold settled for several days prior to racking. Low solids juice promoting purity of varietal aromatics during ferment. We had two stainless steel ferment tanks in which we recombined the hard press juice component with the mother juice. A yeast was chosen on its ability to impart mouthfeel and emphasis varietal character. The ferment dynamics were carefully controlled enabling the yeast to sing, drawing out the characters otherwise hidden in the juice matrix. The ferments were arrested with just a lick of residual sugar and promptly racked off gross lees. 10% of the young wine going to seasoned barrels with the balance to fresh tanks. The fine lees were stirred through the wine monthly in both barrels and tanks, slowly and carefully building body and texture into the wine. The tank and barrel components were married in late August and the wine carefully prepared for bottling in early October 2021.